Sensoria Fitness Smart Socks Track Your Stride For a Better Run

A new type of tracker may help you become a stronger runner and prevent injuries.

Sensoria Fitness Smart Socks will not only calculate how far and how fast you’ve run but also how well. A tracker that attaches to the socks will measure your gait in various ways, which you can view on the corresponding app or desktop dashboard.

Sensoria’s socks are washable and made of textile material. The anklet attaches to the sock via magnetic snaps embed on the cuff. The tracker doesn’t go all the way around the ankle and it’s made of flexible material. It contains a proprietary technology that senses activity level and impact.

A heat map on the app will show users where they are putting pressure on their feet. Red indicates lots of pressure.

Sensoria Socks come with one anklet tracker which you can alternate from foot to foot. In the future, the company spokesperson says it “will enable a two anklet scenario for people looking for a more in-depth and accurate information on center of balance, symmetric gait analysis and running form. This option will be appropriate for more advanced athletes.”

If you carry your smartphone while running, which I do, you can use the Virtual Trainer feature of the app that gives you real-time advice based on how you’re running. Through the app or desktop, you can set up a range of stride and the cadence monitor will notify you when you step out of that range. If you don’t carry your smartphone while running, or don’t have one, you can check your running data on your desktop computer after a run.

A Washington-based company called Heapsylon created the socks. The company launched a campaign on Indiegogo to raise $87,000 for manufacturing and have exceeded that goal by more than $20,000 with 4 days to go.

The anklet comes in four colors — black, white, pink and light blue. But now that the company has exceeded its funding goals with the help of supporters through Indiegogo, it says it will make special edition colors, too.

For now, the anklet only attaches to the Sensoria sock, but a spokesperson from Heapsylon says “in the future we will work with sock manufacturing companies to embed our sensors in their running or hiking lines of socks. Very much like a Goretex of textile sensors. So people will be able to select their favorite type and brand of smart socks.”

Heapsylon plans to release the app for iOS and Android and eventually Windows phones.